My World September 2012

Have you ever gone to a store, shopped and then when you are checking out you swipe your card and the checkout clerk says “declined Ma’am”? Really rots huh! Has happened to me three times already this month, very embarrassing!

I have been a single mother since 1996; I struggled and raised my two boys that are men now. I did all I could to finagle my finances so that everything got taken care of and paid. I worked as a bank teller for about 10 years and I always balanced my checking book on a daily basis. I always made sure that I plotted out each month ahead of time to make sure that I knew what bills I had to pay with what pay check and kept all my receipts and all my paperwork all together in case I ever needed it. I then starting working as a secretary and I kept up this routine for another 14 or so more years. I never really went out or did anything crazy or fun; I spent time with my boys and plotted along my path in life. I had some troubles here and there raising the boys by myself, but I always seemed to figure things out and managed to keep us all balanced. When my youngest did not want to attend school I fought him until I had no more fight left and knew anyway it would do no good! I got gumption to go to college and become an adjustment counselor, because I felt if I had been in that position for my son I could have made a difference. I went to college and graduated with a BA in Psychology. Along the path of my college years I also started taking classes on spiritualism, Reiki, Dowsing, Angel card reading and many other subjects at Angels by the Sea. With all these courses and classes and all my wonderful knowledge being absorbed by my brain I started to lose the routine that I had abided by for over 20 years. When I graduated for college I tried to find a masters program and I always seemed to fall short. Due to this I started practicing Reiki as a second job. I am still trying to get my passion for helping other off its feet and to its full potential.

It seems like my perception was being shifted but I also notice that the world was changing as well. More money for gas, more money for food (have you noticed that when gas go up food does as well but when gas goes down food does not, then gas goes up and food goes up again?), more money for Health Insurance, more money for clothes, more money for Real Estate  taxes, more money everywhere due to high gas prices. Then my mortgage company decides to change the rules half way through the game and is now not taking in account for any of these increases as they did in the beginning. So my paycheck does not go up much, mortgage company that use to base my payment on my adjusted income taking account for my expenses, decided to only base my payment on my gross income, insurance goes up and take home goes down.  At this point it starts to get tough to make mortgage payment and pay RE taxes. Now add to this a son who got medically discharged from the military due to the development of diabetes in basic training with no benefits, meaning I now needed to take him back on my insurance which means going from individual to family, a $450 increase because they will not adopt the single parent + plan. (Course the knife in the side is that, I know of a family with two incomes and 10 kids that 12 on their plan paying the same as me the single mom + son) Also add to that Healthy foods at the grocery store due to my son having to eat low carb meals. Let me tell you when you have to make your meals 40 carbs or under you tend to get creative. But to do this you must buy lots of meat, chicken, pork, fish, vegetables, and fruits. You also start to look to the health food stores for a variety of items that will help you pull a meal together like low carb bread; I easily spend up to $600 a month. I use to spend $300 a month when I had both boys living with me; I think this is due to increase in food and having to buy more fresh foods.

Now it seems that more and more establishments and government units do not give a hoot how much it cost the middle to low wage workers to live! I remember commenting on something (political post) on facebook about the cost of living and someone that did not even know me had the odasity to say to me that I should not be living beyond my means! WOW! Really!!! I only just started going out and having fun that is up until I now have to pay more for health insurance and food.

Two years ago I saw on Yahoo 10 ways to cut your budget and save money, and got excited and clicked on the link only to see that I have been doing all 10 for the past ten years…… really!! I just have to shake my head when someone says well we are all just going to have to buckle down and save where we can, Um… ya I have been living it dude for most of my life okay! So then what about me, all these people panicking about having to give up their Duncan coffee and I gave it up like 20 years ago, so where does that leave me the one that has been living pay check to pay check for the last 20 plus years??

Well I will tell you it leaves us short! All those greedy food corporations and oil companies and governmental departments all with thick pockets and all us low and moderate income people running short on funds to make the bills. Trying with all my might to do what I can when I can always something falls by the wayside.  Three weeks ago I was dealing with a rash situation with my two dogs, the vet bill set me back but I also had to deal with extra expenses with my son and the breaks went on my car, oy vay! When it rains it pours so they say, so now my take home is down over $500 basically I only have enough to buy groceries, all other bills will have to wait. I get paid on a bi-weekly basis, now I have a week before I get paid again. I come home five days before I get paid again and there is a sweet bright pink tag on my door from the water Dept, they want over $300 in 4 days or they are going to shut my water off, nice so the day before I get paid! I tried to call them but one person’s voice mails state they will not be in until 6 days later and another states that she will not be in that day, dated like a week ago, so I take my chances on the voice mail and state my dilemma on the fact that I get paid the next day. Fingers crossed. So I do not watch much TV but I could not help but notice when I sat down on my bed that the cable box was blinking, nice! So now they want over $100 to reinstate my service (basic cable few months behind). I figured no great loss until Sunday rolled around and it was the first real game of the season and yup I had no way of watching and no money to go down to a local bar, agrrrr!

I’m not sure why some people are in denial, or cannot see that most of the reason why this is happening to the lower and mid income is due to the way that our country is being run. Past presidents have not let things fall this deep or this devastating, they would level things off and would make sure the lower incomes did not suffer, but not this Administration No they do not seem to care about the lower or mid income, they pretend to and talk the talk but do not walk the walk, this from a president that was raised by a single mother, for shame!

One of my places of daytime employment went from a very strict management one that knew things inside and out was a little blind but did its best to be by the book and lay the law down, boundaries and rules clearly stated. This meant that no one was in the dark and that all had to answer to the same gavel and play by the same rules. Then it became all willy nilly let’s make sure we do not step on toes and it is okay for her to waste 30 minutes out of her time with us but hell no you better make up those 5 minutes, not having rules not having a hold on the right or wrongs makes it hard for those to do their job well, to do it in the least amount of time and with pride in their work. Under the newer management I felt like what I do really does not matter much, why should I care about what I do and to the extent of how I do it if no one else seem to care. All they seemed to care about is that I was on time and did not leave a minute earlier-than I should regardless of the fact that it was not that way for others in my office. You see if you want efficiency and order, things done right and to the utmost of effectiveness. You need guidelines and boundaries, rules that apply to all involved. If you want efficiency then you need to back up the people that will help you get there and keep the spirits high and productive for all.

This I must say also reminds me of our current government and how it is being run, we use to have order, we use to fight for the little guy, now it is all just greed and crazy BS! Money…Money….Money!

So Sad, because without guidelines and rules things will eventually implode, if you show no concern for others why will they care for you, about you or about what they have been upholding and fighting for years. This all breeds a FU attitude and only havoc will result in this!

Gotta CHANGE things and IT is obviously NOT Obama that is going to change things for the better for the best for us! Not too sure about Romney either to tell you the truth! Right now I am so feeling we need to fight for US, we need to take a stand for US!

Deep in my soul and in my heart I really feel we need to go back to the Native American way of living! We need to respect nature, our earth, our ocean, rivers, the air we breathe, we need to go back to the spiritual way of living, we need to re-connect with our neighbors, we need to re-establish our communities and bring back helping thy neighbor.

My business logo and name is Gestalt Reiki I brought my two educations together Psychology and Reiki. The tree symbol with all the people is Gestalt psychology and the meaning is “the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts” Just one of the people does not make the picture of the tree; it takes them all to complete the picture and bring it all together. This I feel we need to do in our neighborhoods, our towns, our communities.

God Bless!

Namaste!

<*)}}}}}}><